Unlicensed Testing Site At NJ Home Shut Down: Authorities

BRICK, NJ — A company that was advertising on Facebook offering COVID-19 testing with next-day results at a home in Brick Township has been ordered to halt its operations, authorities say.

The company, named Safe Sites LLC, was offering the testing in late December at a home on Kettle Creek Drive, and marketing it through posts in Facebook groups.

"COVID testing drive up. No wait no lines results by tomorrow!" a Dec. 28 post for SafeSites LLC in the group Overheard in Brick said, with a 732 telephone number for more information. The advertisements were posted as people were desperately searching for COVID-19 testing over the holidays.

SafeSites LLC does not come up as a registered limited liability company in New Jersey, and it does not have a website. An 800 number listed on the Facebook page refers callers to a 732 number that also is posted on its Facebook page and on the ad. Text messages to that 732 number are answered with "WRONG NUMBER."

The owner, Marylin Morales, responded over the weekend in an email to Patch in which she said the company is registered with the state. She also called the testing at her home "a lapse in judgment" and said it was done on an emergency basis. Read more: COVID Testing At Brick Home 'A Lapse In Judgment': Company Owner

Until just before New Year's, anyone who contacted the 732 number was told they could come to the Kettle Creek Drive home and for $50 per person receive a rapid test and get results same day, or for $65, four people in a car could receive PCR tests with results sent to them the following day in a PDF (portable document file) format.

The testing at the home has since been shut down, according to the Ocean County Health Department and Brick Township authorities.

Attempts to contact Morales, who posted the SafeSites ad in Overheard in Brick, through Facebook, and attempts to contact SafeSites LLC by phone and by email were unsuccessful before this article was published.

Officials with a California company with a very similar name, Safe Site LLC, expressed frustration at the similarity of the names.

"We are indeed aware of the company SafeSites who illegally tested from a residential home that was discovered last week," Brad Sexton, an advisor with SafeSite LLC, said in an email to Patch. "That company has no affiliation with our Company, SafeSite, LLC."

"It’s very disturbing that someone would do this so close to our name," Christine Altman, vice president of medical operations for SafeSite, LLC, said in a phone conversation. "Everything we are doing is completely legitimate."

Daniel Regenye, the public health coordinator for the Ocean County Health Department, said he accompanied Bryan Dickerson, Brick's acting code enforcement supervisor, to the Kettle Creek home, where the owner was told to cease and desist.

Dickerson said he issued two violation warnings "for violating zoning regulations. She (the proprietor) has ceased testing and is now in compliance."

The site did not have a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certificate to perform testing or a New Jersey state license to collect test specimens in the home, said Nancy Kearney, communications manager for the state Department of Health.

"All testing sites must have a CLIA," Kearney said.

Kearney on Monday said a waiver put in place in June 2020 for COVID-19 testing collection, to allow laboratories to expand their testing sites, does not apply to SafeSites.

"The state's waiver is only for New Jersey licensed testing laboratories who have their own employees collecting COVID-19 specimens," Kearney said in an email. "SafeSites was given information on how to apply for a mobile New Jersey state collection License as an independent collector."

While testing activities ceased at the Brick Township home, the Safe Sites LLC Facebook page remains active. As of Thursday afternoon, it had removed listings of mobile testing in Brick, Barnegat and Passaic that existed before New Year's. A flyer that was the page's cover photo included information about COVID-19 testing at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Mays Landing, with testing beginning Jan. 19. The full photo is a flyer for testing through a partnership of Chai Care and the state health department. That testing began at the church in January 2021, the Press of Atlantic City reported.

Morales blocked a Patch reporter after an attempt to contact her through Facebook, and a text message to the phone number listed in the ad and on the SafeSites LLC Facebook page was met with the reply "WRONG NUMBER." An 800 number listed on the page refers callers to the 732 number listed on the Facebook page.

An email sent to the email address listed on the Facebook page, safesitesllc@njstaffing.net, was not answered, and attempts to find a website that corresponded to the email address were unsuccessful.

Altman said Safe Site, the California company, operates COVID-19 screening at all 12 universities in the Pac-12 Conference and at Duke University, among other sites.

While the company is authorized to operate in New Jersey, it is not working at any New Jersey sites at this time, she said.

"I don’t want people to lose confidence in what we are doing," she said. "Our entire mission is to be out there and get people accurate, reliable test results."

Note: This article has been updated to remove the reference to the University of California at Berkeley as a separate entry, as it is part of the NCAA's Pac-12 Conference. Patch regrets the error.

On Monday, Jan. 10, this article was updated to note that the health department offered waivers to New Jersey-licensed laboratories only for COVID-19 test sample collection. SafeSites is an independent collector and not eligible for the waiver, state officials said.

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